Amazon Now Sending Snail-Mail Reminders to Update Your Kindle

Kindle owners at MobileRead and the eBook Evangelist blog are reporting that they've gotten notices in the mail from Amazon with nagging reminders asking them to update their older Kindles.

Last month Amazon started sending out email notices notifying Kindle owners of a small but critical firmware update which replaced certain security certificates.

This update makes it possible for the Kindle (including the older models like the 2007-era $399 original Kindle) to continue to communicate with Amazon over 3G and Wifi after Amazon changes its security on 22 March, and that makes it so important that Amazon is sending not only email notices but also post cards.

I got the email, but I have yet to receive a post card. I'm told that they read:

Dear Kindle Owner,

We've been trying to contact you via email and other methods to let you know that one or more of your Kindle e-readers requires a critical update.

For step-by-step instructions on how to update your Kindle and to find out which devices require this update, please visit www.amazon.com/ku2016 .

We apologize for any inconvenience, The Kindle Team

Not all Kindle owners have gotten an email, much less a post card. Amazon appears to only be sending the notices to Kindle owners that regularly disable the connectivity on their device.

But some are getting snail-mail from Amazon (image via eBook Evangelist):

Did you get the email? What about the post card?

Judging by the spike in traffic over the past couple weeks, a lot of owners of older Kindles are getting the notices. Many have expressed frustration or confusion with the update process.

"My K2 can still access the web but I keep seeing the “Basic Web is unable to make a secure connection at this time.” error message. Just assumed this was Amazon blocking my access," one wrote. "However, I just looked up the version of the Kindle OS I should be running to discover that I am not running the latest. I have 2.5.6 when I should be running 2.5.8." That user reported that even after installing the update, they still had issues.

Have you encountered any problems?

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Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."

After much gnashing of teeth, my paperwhite finally updated itself and I hope they don’t send me any further emails. I have a really old 2nd generation Kindle. I wonder if I should charge it up, plug it in, and update it. Hmmm. I haven’t used it in 2 or 3 years now.

I caved b/c of the emails and so wish I hadn’t. I never have my kindle off airplane mode and am convinced all Amazon wanted was to collect info on me and load my kindle with ads that now run even when my paperwhite is offline. I also now get constant reminders to turn my airplane mode off so my kindle can sync…grrrrr. I wonder how long before Amazon goes the BnN route and takes away sideloading options?

I have a Kindle DX and a Voyage. I updated the DX within a couple of days of the announcement and got the “update successful” note on it. So far as I understand, the Voyage does not require an update. *However* in the past week I have received a letter in the post from Amazon UK telling me to update one of my Kindle ereaders, and more annoying, every single time I visit the Amazon site there is a banner at the top of the page telling me to update, with a link to the update page.

I found a page to check whether my Kindle has the current version already – and it did! So it must have updated in between somehow, and of course, Amazon knows that. I do connect to WiFi every once in a while when I buy new books…

I got your post card but I havn’t heard from amazon in over a year?I am an old veteran who has felt forgotten by your generation electronically. I’d sure like someone over the phone to clue me in on this new technology.I enjoyed my kindle but packing up and continual remail is not my forte. Can’t my old kindle be repaired? bring back my old friend.